Movie Breakdown: Gravity (Noah)

People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different.  In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing lead us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all.  Read on!

The Impression:

I was sold when someone said “new Alfonso Cuaron film,” double sold when someone said “new Alfonso Cuaron film in outer space, and triple-sold when the first trailer of Sandra Bullock spinning in to the deep, empty beauty of space started showing up.

The Reality:

Gravity is at once the most beautiful film of the year and the most harrowing. There has a been a lot of hyperbole spun around how great this film is as it has slowly made its way through the festival circus and I can only say this – believe the hype. Cuaron, using industrially controlled robots as his camera men, creates a film that does nothing, if not make you feel like you are adrift in space. Starting with a near 30-minute shot, that is everything you want it to be, Cuaron thrusts you in to the deep-space dilemma of Ryan Stone (the fabulous Sandra Bullock) and her small team of space colleagues. Nothing goes well, and before you can shake a Hubble Space Telescope, Scott’s floating in the emptiness of space with nothing and seemingly no one to help her out. The next terse sixty minutes is a terrifying plunge in to the great fears that quite possibly plague all of us – dying, alone, without hope. It’s more than this though, Cuaron takes us on a journey that explores the very people we are and what facing the great unknown of death does to us. Add to the pile that this is like the most thrilling IMAX movie you’ve ever seen and what you’ve got here is the best film of the year so far. And did I mention George Clooney, that old rascal, is in it as well?

The Lesson:

Cuaron is the truest of cinematic masters. If we have to wait another seven years for his next movie I might just shoot myself off in to outer space.